Friday, October 8, 2010

Peacocks' Luck Wrong Kind Luck For Now

The news coming out of Saint Peter's isn't all bad. Then again, it could be better.

"We had a turbulent fall ... a lot of injuries, unfortunately," said Peacocks' coach John Dunne, whose team appeared poised to seriously contend for a conference regular-season title.

It still might, but Saint Peter's might need some quick healing, and a dose of good luck to do it.

The most-serious, both in terms of severity and quality of player, is to 6-2 senior guard Wesley Jenkins, clearly one of the MAAC's better guards.

Jenkins suffered a knee injury recently, but the situation might not quite be as bad as originally expected.

"At first we thought he would be done for the year," said Dunne. "But he had an MRI on Tuesday (Oct. 5) and it's not a full ACL tear, just a partial one. We've got him in a brace and he'll rehab . We'll take another look in four weeks. If it looks good in four weeks, then he can start doing some things. There's a chance he could be back on the court for us by the opening MAAC weekend (the first weekend in December).

"For sure we'll be able to make a judgment by then. If the knee hasn't responded, then we'd probably be able to decide to let him sit out and take a redshirt season."

Jenkins is a likely first-team preseason all-star selection who averaged 13.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game last season. Without him, the Peacocks lose arguably their best player, but from the one position they appear to have depth.

Appear to, though, is the operative description as two other expected members of the backcourt playing group are also battling preseason injury situations.

Junior Blaise Ffrench, a transfer from UTEP who is eligible to play this season, is also battling knee woes, although not as serious as Jenkins'.

"Blaise is a pretty good player and would be a nice compliment to Wes and Nick (Leon, another senior guard)," said Dunne. "He can play off the dribble and he's strong and can score in the point. We haven't had that type of third option from the perimeter in recent years, and he's capable of giving us that.

"His knee is still a little delicate at this point, but it's a minor thing."

Ffrench is expected to be on the court when men's practice begin on Oct. 15.